Former Jasper Police Officer Charged with Bribery

BIRMINGHAM—The U.S. Attorney’s Office today charged a former Jasper police officer with soliciting and accepting a $5,000 bribe while a member of the city police force, U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance and FBI Special Agent in Charge Patrick Maley announced.

Federal prosecutors charged Scottie Dewayne Wilkins, 30, of Winston County, with one count of bribery in an information filed in U.S. District Court. The information charges that Wilkins solicited and accepted the bribe on September 22, 2011 from an individual who had a probation matter pending in state court. Wilkins took the bribe “intending to be influenced and rewarded in connection with using his position as a police officer with the city of Jasper, Alabama Police Department to provide assistance” to the individual on his probation matter, according to the information. The individual who paid the bribe is not named in the document.

The information seeks to have Wilkins forfeit $5,000 and a diamond ring he bought on September 22.

The bribery count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Henry Cornelius is prosecuting the case.

The public is reminded that an information is only a charge. It is the burden of the government to prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.